Anton Kartashev at St Petersburg Theological Academy

The purpose of the article is to determine how studying at St. Petersburg Theological Academy and his early teaching years at the same educational institution affected the development of a famous church historian A. V. Kartashev. Using the methods elaborated by the researchers of intellectual biographies and drawing on archival and published sources, the authors address the problems of reconstructing and evaluating educational practices at St. Petersburg Theological Academy. The most important aspects of the early stage of Anton Kartashev’s biography were the processes of formation of his spiritual, intellectual, and scholarly image, the manifestation and consolidation of the features of this image in his first works on church historiography and in his teaching and research activities at the Academy. The authors give a comprehensive overview of all the types of Kartashev’s activities, show a high assessment of their results by his senior colleagues, and pay special attention to his participation in religious enlightenment activities. The novelty of the approach to the studied documents lies in reconstructing the intellectual biography of the young historian using the principles of communicative analysis, with Kartashev being the main subject of communication. The process of his communication with other people is viewed not just as his personal manifestation/expression, but as the formation/transformation of his personality in the interaction with his teachers, colleagues, and students. The authors reassess the “scandal” during the defense of S. G. Runkevich’s doctoral dissertation, allegedly arranged by Kartashev, characterize the perception of his teaching style by students, and present a detailed analysis of the first publication of the novice historian. The research results speak against the recent desire of some researchers to belittle the significance of Kartashev’s activities within the walls of the Academy.